I thought the folks at ServoCity.com suddenly liked me a bunch when I saw the candy they included with my order. Then I noticed the name of the candy and wonder if it is code....
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Disappearing Servo Grommets, Eyelets and Screws

The source could not be more logical

Text photos and video by Tom Hintz

Posted – 8-17-2017

There are things about RC flying that drive me absolutely goofy. Radio failure is exceptionally rare but supremely irritating, but that’s not it. People that dress funny at the flying field upsets me mainly because depending on your view of the Green Bay Packers, that is my job. But that’s not it either.

Those little rubber grommets and brass eyelets (don’t know why they are called eyelets) make me crazy, primarily when moving used servos out of an older plane and into a new one. Some come out easily with no damage, even in crashed planes. Others wind up with the screws that secure the servos bonded to the eyelets by the CA we didn’t let cure before inserting the screws or the eyelet collapsing around the screw. Either way, the remarkable metal-to-metal bond strength of CA adhesives is evident. The screw and eyelet spin within the rubber grommet as if they were one piece, which they sort of are now.

Making this RC-specific frustration worse is that the servo manufacturers have colluded and made these pieces standard fare for all servos – forever. I know of 40 years that this grommet/eyelet conspiracy has been forced upon us. Open a new servo packaging and there are the grommets and eyelets again, exactly like the ones from decades ago. Despite knowing all this for a long time I can add these grommets and eyelets to the things that I should have been saving over the years but of course didn’t.

Saving Sources

Adding CA to servo screw holes does help, (left) if you dry before running the screws in, which few of us apparently do. The result (right) is often screws bonded to the brass eyelets with surprising strength.
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One of the truly nifty things about the Internet is the access it gives us to distant (and surprisingly near) sources for things we need and, late at night, things we just want. The servo pieces here are a necessity. And, where I found these pieces available without having to buy another servo casts serious doubt on my capacity for logic. They come from an enterprise called ServoCity.com. It can’t get much more obvious than that but I totally whiffed on finding these folks somehow. But now I know and thought I had better tell you as well.

ServoCity.com has a wealth of information on the servos we use including their voltage capacities, torques related to those voltages, sizes and programming features. I will include links to their servo parts-related pages but be sure to look around while there, this is a significant servo/servo-parts source.

ServoCity.com has a huge number of servos available but also the little parts that we look at here. What is surprising to me is that they offer the grommets and eyelets at totally logical prices also. I spent under $25 and now have a stock of grommets and eyelets that lets me sleep at night. My coming days won’t be marked by the frustrations of not being able to find a grommet or eyelet. Chances are something else will frustrate me but not servo parts!

While ServoCity.com is primary in this story don’t overlook RTL Fasteners for servo retaining screws and servo arm bolts. They also have huge assortments and by the bag screws and bolts of all descriptions. For general fasteners, RTL is my go-to outfit. You will find links to both in the Resources section below.

Conclusions

ServoCity.com had a couple sizes of brass eyelets (left) that will make shimming servos out much easier. The rubber grommets (right) seem to be the same with virtually all servos I have ever seen.
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I have probably saved roughly the same amount of never-to-be-used screws, bolts and various RC-related fittings as anyone. I am hopeful that others among you have gotten as frustrated as I when searching for one more grommet or eyelet in the bottom of my “spares” boxes and rarely finding what I need.

This story came about because I finally had the brain storm to order a good supply of these high-penny pieces to keep on hand. Bags of 12 of these little wonders often cost like $1.35 (8-14-2017) so even I can lay in a decent supply without having to go out and knock over a fruit stand to get the cash.

So, now it’s time for you to get off your butt and order your own supply and reduce some of the future frustration in your RC life. Then when you don’t have to stop to look for servo pieces you know you don’t have, think of me and the “sacrifices” I make to bring you RC life-changing tech like this.

Video Tour

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